September Frugals

fff tonight - drove a few miles north to a small airport for a free cruise-in/classic auto show, and balloon glow. They only had 4 balloons, but they were pretty! I like looking at old cars too - and old airplanes! Dsis brought us dinner (she had coupons), and I made coffee to go. DD's Aldi trip was about half of the usual, since we've been stocking up little by little, to the point I now feel comfortable just buying what we need for the week, plus some of our beef. There's still quite a bit in the freezer, and this year's beef will be off to the butcher this weekend.

Bastelmutti, I was surprised to hear a coworker lamenting that she has to put her kid in braces for the SECOND time and the girl is only a seventh grader! When I was in high school in the 90s none of my friends EVER had them younger than that - more like 9th/10th grade. Maybe they have changed their approach since then - I regularly knew kids in braces at the elementary school I worked at, even as young as 3rd grade. I just wonder what would have changed. One thing is sure, the orthodontist will now make twice the money on my friend's kid!

I bought some clothes tonight and glad I did. I was not enjoying my clothes and they were not making me feel very good about my appearance. I will get rid of a few things. I did ok on price. Nothing spectacular, though not full price: 5 new items (mix of shirts/pants) for about $100. More than many on our dear thread might have spent, including me at certain moments of my recent history, but I am cool with having spent it. It should round out my wardrobe for the season, anyway and since clothes shopping is a stressor, I am happy not to have to think about it for a while and that it was relatively painless.

I had my girl's night out last night at my friends house. So much fun! There were four of us and we were laughing so much we were hoarse. Who needs expensive entertainment?

Last night we all went to MarketFest at church because Zach was volunteering. My friend makes fleece headbands for winter and she was selling them there. I needed to get the girlies a new hat anyway and she had a deal going. The double layer ones were $5 each and the single layer ones were $2.50. I got the girls doubles because they go outside all the time and singles for me and James. James' can be folded to be a double because his head is so small and I'm just a warm blooded person. I'm glad I can buy them something handmade and affordable.

Today is a busy day and only moderately frugal. We have to go to the dairy and then we are going to the park for an art festival they are having. All day there will be free art activities, concerts, performances and other art related fun for people of all ages. I think it's going to be amazing.

This afternoon is the annual Polka Mass at church. We are definitely going to that! After that we're having our Fall Fest. Fall Fest isn't super cheap, but it's so much fun. There's going to be a giant inflatible hamster ball for people to roll around in, lots of fair-type food, bingo, kid's games and concerts. There's usually a giant slide and bounce house and this year there are fireworks. I don't feel bad about the money. It's once a year and it's one of the main ways the church raises money for building related projects.

Tomorrow we will be going to Fall Fest at the Cathedral. That will be a little cheaper because the kid's games there are, according to my dad, free.

We're starting to organize the neighborhood pumpkin parade again. That's some good frugal fun. The neighbors bring their pumpkins and have an early evening parade with people and animals in costumes and wagons for the pumpkins. The wagons are decorated and the pumpkins are lighted. It's great.

After this weekend we are wratcheting down the spending a lot. I am going to try to keep the groceries for the week under $100 and we're going to mostly find free things to do. I feel an embroidery, knitting, crocheting and sewing kick coming on.

Yesterday was a weather-imposed frugal day as it was pouring rain here so I had no interest in leaving the house! I ended up washing all of the linens in the guest bedroom -- a task I had been putting off. It would have been more frugal to do them on a sunny day so that I could line dry everything, but the weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate. Will have to go out today as I need to go to the post office, so I will try to be thorough in my list-making and run some other errands at the same time. Also, I will try to get organized so that I can fill out and mail the 2 rebates that I have sitting here. One is for my contact lenses and the other is for the dogs' heart worm preventative. They are only worth $15 combined, but I will take it!

I have not been tracking my spending or calculating my net worth on a regular basis the way I did after first reading YMOYL. But the other day I discovered in reviewing some statements that my retirement fund is actually 25% LARGER than I thought it was. Wow!!! A nice surprise, but it makes me realize that I got lucky and I could very easily get unlucky. So I am going to try to get back to tracking my spending and calculating my net worth.

One last thing. Learned from the vet that if I have my dogs' dental cleanings done in January or February they are discounted by 15%. Of course, I have to take them in for preliminary blood work before hand, so I need to be strategic in how I approach this since I have complete blood work done on them during their annual exams, which falls in September. I hate to pay for blood work twice, but will have to this time around. They don't need dental cleanings every year -- maybe every 3 years -- so I will try to slowly shift their annual appointments 4-6 weeks later for the next few years so that their annual appts fall in January and then I can have blood work done and get a discount on the dental cleanings. Of course, I could always try brushing their teeth daily and that might prevent the dental cleanings altogether...

A good friend at work will be off at the end of the week - she is going to Las Vegas for her daughter's wedding. I wanted to a little send off for her and decided to bake a cake/cupcakes and headed to Michael's to look for wedding-type cake ideas. I wandered weddings, stickers, baking, floral and ended up buying some toile-looking cupcake papers in black and white (the wedding colors) and will make the decorations out of scrapbook paper I already have and will stamp out the words "Mother of the Bride" and add her school photo. $1.99 for the cupcake papers - already have the baking supplies. I just want her to know that we wish her well!

I have to post this because you guys will get a kick out of it. My huge frugal victory for the weekend? Deciding NOT to have DH pick up a Vitamix in HK once he discovered that they cost almost US$1000 there! Now I just need to decide if I want to "save" myself another $500 by not buying one from the US either. A penny saved is... more money in the bank.

Had a total frugal failure on another front, though. Was feeling a bit stir-crazy being home with the kids all weekend, so made a trip to the new bookstore with lots of pretty shiny imported books. Nothing cheap there. And I pretty much let the kids pick out what they wanted once I realized that my initial limit was not going to get them much. DS got three books, including a Garfield collection (his favorite comic), the pocket edition of the Dangerous Book for Boys, and a book on C++ programming. DD got a lego brickmaster set and a berenstain bears book. And I got You, on a Diet for myself (and also sort of for DS, as they are doing a unit on health at school these days and it is supposed to have a really good overview of how digestion and hormones, etc. work). Total damage? Nearly US$140. OUCH! Oh well, all good stuff that will be enjoyed for a long time. Made me doubly glad that I discovered our home county's library system in the US now has books for Kindle. I downloaded two already this weekend, and finished one (a memoir by a lady who worked in Per Se restaurant in NYC when it first opened -- pretty fun read). I am really loving my Kindle and now I will be able to read a lot more newer titles for free, so that's fun.

lhamo

My frugals are pretty simple and not too newsworthy. I have a cold but hate cough drops so I used up some hard peppermint candies that have been in the house forever. They kept my throat moist without being all stinky and medicine-y. I'm drinking sweetened tea this morning instead of my usual coffee. Both the tea and the sweetener were free samples that I discovered in the cupboard-probably from our last hotel stay.

I was really craving something indulgent to eat after work last night. Nothing sounded quite right or wasn't a vegan choice. Instead of having dinner with the guys, I took a shower and regrouped. I ended up making a nice batch of vegan waffles that were delicious and really hit the spot. Ds even ate 2 as dessert! There are enough leftover for me to make another meal of them either today or tomorrow.

Had a lovely fff afternoon yesterday. Took Ian back to Ann Arbor and stopped at the Arboretum for a kite festival. We missed the actual kite making & flying but arrived just in time to see a Japanese drumming school perform. Very cool in a grassy clearing in the woods. Also saw the U/M Chinese yoyo club perform. And we had fun watching the kids run around with and without kites. Afterward Ian treated us to lunch at his dining hall.

Fidgiegirl, re: braces -
Yes, they have changed their approach. They do an initial correction for a short time and then another set when the kid's permanent teeth come in. This will shave about 2 years off of her braces time. Total time is supposed to be less than 2 years. It still involves a retainer afterward. I know braces are a tricky issue, but I feel that with my DD, it was a necessity, not a cosmetic thing, considering how her teeth were coming in. And our ortho office provides me with a clear price breakdown upfront, which makes me more confident about what we're getting.

A few frugal moves this weekend. Our apple trees are dropping apples like crazy, so I gathered up everything on the ground and prepped them to make fruit leather. But halfway through the process I ran out of energy, so made fruit leather with what was ready to go in the dehydrator and shifted gears and made an apple crumble wit the remainder. I have a cold, so that really put a damper on the weekend. I hate taking cold medicine, so I have been drinking a lot of tea and water and just trying to power through it. Of course, when I did finally decide I wanted to take some Nyquil so that I could sleep I discovered that we didn't have any! So I improvised and took a Claritin-D and that killed the congestion enough to allow me to sleep. Think I will do the same today because I already have the Claritin-D on hand and I rarely use it because I can generally keep my allergies in check with the non-decongestant version. Since I don't really have any cold symptoms other than congestion I hate to pump myself full of a bunch of other stuff that is in the Dayquil I have on hand.

Despite having a cold, went to two Tae Kwon Do classes yesterday. They are at 2 different gyms and there is a 90 minute break in between and the classes are in the middle of the day. Instead of grabbing a slice of pizza at the pizza shop to eat between classes I went to the grocery store and bought yogurt, a banana, and an energy bar. $3.20 total and that included 2 more energy bars (they were on sale and I had a coupon!). I came home after the second class and ate the leftover homemade pizza in the fridge. Frugal success!

And, finally, my unemployment claim went through so I actually got 3 checks in the mail, which was a pleasant surprise as I thought I was going to have to meet with the mediator before anything would be approved. The money helped to beef up my checking account enough that I should be in good shape for the next 3 months and not need to touch the emergency fund or savings account.

Not so frugal for the day...took the dog to get her dental cleanings and to have a lump on her tail biopsied. The estimate was $700 with a good customer discount. Ouch. I now vow to put serious effort into brushing my dogs' teeth.